Just wondering if anybody had any luck Saturday night? I fished the bridges, mouth of Bluestone and Buffalo. Nothing.

My son and I fished the Clarksville Bridge Saturday the 9th. We caught 9 Blues over 8lbs and about 10 @ 5 lbs. We went looking for Stripers but found not takers that is when we went back and fished the Bridge..
I know to you guys that catch the 20-30 lbers these are small but we had a ball....4 on at once the penn reels were singing.

Largest Fish was about 11lbs caught on a bream.

We loaded the bait tank down at 5:30 am....I am new at this we caught lots of shad around the pump house also a longer bait fish @ 6-8 inches long. What are these?
These seemed to be the bait of choice for the larger blues.
Also what causes the nostrils and underbelly of the shad to turn blood red????????? Did I have to much rock salt in the bait tank....

Thanks for you help guys My son said that he had the most fun Saturday fishing he has ever had in his life
Lord knows this day and time I want to do anything to keep him busy and away from the wrong influences.
Thanks and God Bless.

I re-posted this from the Green Fish lights post I submitted earlier.

The larger bait fish are more than likely shad, i have caught some up to 14", and heard of some people catching some larger. The red in the head end of the bait comes from lack of o2 i beleive.
also good post!

Good Luck!
Mike

BB, the red noses are stress. Its pretty hard to get too much salt, shad love salty water. Its possible but I doubt it.

Hot water retains significantly less oxygen than cooler water. In the tank, oxygen can go below survivable levels very fast. A second main factor in the tank is shedding and stomach content expulsion. Generally, within the first 20=30 minutes after capture shad will pee and poop as well as throw up stomach contents. This is the black residue on the bottom and the white slimey looking stuff floating around. This matter coats the gills and so dereases the oxygen situation even more. The ammonia from the pee and poop change the ph of the bait-tank water which yes again increases the stress because as the ph changes the water's ability to retain dissolved oxygen gets worse as well. In a bait tank, its really like everything is against you when its hot and any mistake will send them to the bottom.

There are several ways to fix these issues even with the warmer water. First, if you can use a holding tank do so. Gently drop the shad into this tank and then change them into the bait tank after 20-30 minutes when much of the stomach content will be gone. Secondly, change 1/3 to 1/2 the water immediately upon smelling ammonia or seeing the start of foamy brown residue on the surface. You have to remember to re-add the salt when you change a % of the water. Last nite I used almost 3lbs of salt across at least four water changes; lots of work but I had great bait. Change polyfoam filters each time you change water to remove the poop and stomach contents which clog up the gills.

A lot is said sometimes about having cooler water in the bait tank. In a commercial tank or a home tank it makes sense to hold the water maybe 10 cooler than outside after the outside temp tops around 80. Oxygen retention goes way up. Water temperature in the tank should be set from the water temp of the water being fished in. Anytime you drop a bait from cooler to hotter there will be a hit as the fish adjusts. Generally delta's of 10 degress are survivable but from cold to hot, if the fish is stressed anyway...you may have a squiggly bait in your hand when you hook it that will be DOA when the sinker hits the bottom. Hot to cold delta's of 10 or less are fine in my book. In the rivers, the water is mixed so this does not matter but in the lake the temp will be cooler if you are fishing deeper in the summer. Its fine (from my experience) to run the bait-tank at the temp of the water down there instead of the surface temp. You'll have to drop a thermometer down to be sure, if you don't have that try 5 degrees.

Slightly cooler water can be obtained by adding a hose to your fill pump and dropping the fill pump down 15-20 ft or so. It can also come from home if you have a well but be carefule to mix this with lake water to get the right temp because the well water is likely way too cold. Lastly, the old standby of a 2liter pepsi bottle full of frozen water works great. Its cheap, it lies in the cooler till needed and is re-useable.

Lastly, shad are not too smart and they can bash their noses into the sides of the tank. This looks different. It looks more like an injury wheras stress results in more of a drunk's nose look. When shad are startled in the lake, they "explode" out of the school/shoal in every direction to escape the danger. This instinct carries over into the tank so if a lid is "popped" open or the person with the net is agressive in the tank, it'll startle the shad and may result in some broken noses. Most times, red-nose comes from stress but gently opening the tank, not shining the light straight in there as the tank opens, and being gentle with the net will most times fix this. Last nite my shad were schitzo on this account but no red noses.

Hey BB, this is more than you likely wanted but its getting hot so I thought I'd try to help everybody out as much as I could. Tite lines everybody...jfo

WOW THANKS JFO....

I WILL CUT AND PASTE THESE INSTRUCTIONS AND PRINT THEM TO PUT IN THE BOAT......THANX AGAIN........

WE ARE NEW AT THIS....BUT WE'RE LEARNING.......
WE KEPT BAIT 7 1/2 HOURS SATURDAY THAT'S BETTER THAN WE WE DOING......

AGAIN MANY THANKS,
THE BUCKET

Thanks for the report Bait Bucket.

We fished evening into early night. Tried cut shad and eels. Not even a bite. We must be doing something wrong. Although, we didn't see any of the boats around us pulling anything in either.

Have to keep on trying though...

Bait keeper and continuous water change out,I also have a large air stone in the tank as well and it helps a lot,never used salt but it probably the same as bait keeper,somone told me to put foam off in the water too and that keeps down the foam some people say creamer will do the same thing as foam off ??